From Me To You
by VerelLupin
Summary: Charles knows everything about Raven, except why she left but now Raven will give him a reason to read between the lines and maybe give them a second chance. Charles/Raven Romantically.


**Ok, I had to write another and probably more after this, because they are so darn cute together. **

**I just saw it for like the tenth time. Love James MacAvoy and I am so looking forward to Hunger Games. (GO JEN!)**

**Anyway. I own nothing or this would be in the movie. **

**Enjoy...**

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><p>He was still sleeping on the right side of the bed. He still had his tea late at night, the empty cup on his night table attested to that. The next day's wardrobe was still being laid out on the chair.<p>

Everything was still the same as when she had lived here. Only one thing had changed. She touched the hard and cold metal and winced.

Charles shouldn't be sitting here. He should not have to use his beautiful aristocratic hands to move himself about. He should be writing long-winded papers on genetic anomalies with them.

He should be out and about, gesturing wildly to some drunken co-ed, not lying asleep at half past nine but then she should be sleeping in the next room. She should be out with him laughing at the cheesy pick-up lines he uses. She should be the one helping him get in and out of that chair but she wasn't.

In fact this was the first time in months that she had the guts to show up. This was the first time she hadn't chickened out in the driveway.

She sighed and sat in the cold chair immediately comparing it to the plush wingback he used to have.

"Raven?"

"Hi."

"Hello back," he said turning to face her.

"I don't like this one," she said stroking the metal armrest.

"It gets me around."

"Typical Charles, don't you ever want to complain about how unfair it all is?"

He lied on his back and put his hands behind his head, his gaze on the ceiling. "What good has that ever done anybody?"

"It's not always about action. Why can't you ever just feel things?" She got up and angrily shoved his wheelchair into the corner.

He didn't raise his head as the chair slammed into the bookshelf. "Why are you here?"

"Do I need a reason?"

"You made your reasoning not to come back with me pretty clear."

"You told me to go!" she protested.

This time she got her wish. She got feelings, angry ones. "I didn't think I had to tell you to stay. Jesus, Raven. How long have you known me?" He sat up and glared, "I'd just been shot, as my sister you should have come with me on pure principle. I shouldn't have had to ask."

"I am not your sister," she growled pushing her nose against his.

"Your actions proved that you weren't my friend either."

It was times like this that Raven was glad Charles had made that ridiculous promise to never read her mind. She tilted her head and before he could so much as offer a protest, she kissed him.

It wasn't long or particularly passionate but it did tell him all the things she had been unable to voice on the beach when he told her to go with Erik, when he pushed her away in favor of Moira.

She pulled away and took advantage of his shock, "I never claimed to be anything of yours but what you wanted, you never allowed me a choice. Would it have killed you to ask, just once?"And with that she vanished as quickly as she'd come.

The next morning he found a tray containing: tea, a sunny side egg and two pieces of toast sitting on his chair. He curiously lifted the breakfast and found a note neatly tucked under the teacup.

Setting the food aside he unfurled the note.

_I've always been difficult; you know this better than most._

"Very nice of you to recognize that."

_I'm stubborn and reckless about everything I do. I never think about the consequences until it's too late to do much about them._

"That's a bit harsh."

_I came to see you._

"I noticed."

_To make sure you are ok without me, which you are_.

"Oh, Raven. How could you think that?"

_I had to be sure I made the right decision._

"I suppose and have you?"

_I'm unsure…take care,_

_Raven._

Charles folded the note and drank the rest of tea wondering where she was now and when she would show up again so he could tell her how wrong she was about everything.

Two months went by before the notes began to show up. They were usually under his teacup and as the days passed they came with a steady regularity. Charles began to expect them and every new one he got brought back the warmth that had been missing since she had left.

_We raided a government building today._

"Be careful, it's not a game." He said.

_With my powers their security was a total joke._

"Erik should be watching out for you." He muttered to the empty room.

_Stop worrying, Charlie. I bet you're talking to my note. Aren't you?_

"As a matter of fact, I see nothing wrong…" he read the next line and the corner of his mouth lifted in a smirk.

_You answered my previous question. You are such a dork._

"Smart ass."

_I'll try to come see you as soon as I can._

_Rave_

His morning routine now consisted of her notes and his conversations with them. He would read them and then feel a pang because regardless of her jokes at his expense and the information about her comings and goings she still was no closer to staying.

As the letters continued showing up the pang became more and more noticeable and although Raven apparently still felt comfortable delivering them, it did make him wonder if she still considered this her home and if she'd ever come back.

The latest note did nothing to assuage his fears.

_Things have been going bad. _

"Are you ok?"

_I'm fine but some of us got taken. Erik barely escaped. Luckily Azael and I got out before the commotion really started but we lost Angel and Frost was hurt._

"Just tell me where you are? I'll come for you straightaway."

_I can't tell you where I am yet but Erik says it was just a minor setback. Charles, he didn't even seem concerned at all. He kept saying we could just recruit more, like the others didn't matter. _

"Erik means well."

_I'm so confused. I don't know what he's thinking anymore. I'll contact you._

_R_

He glanced out the window at the rain-drenched grounds of what had once been their house thinking how easily he could call Hank and be allowed to locate her but he had to let her do this on her own. If she wanted to come back, he couldn't force her decision.

She was right. She wasn't his little sister or his daughter. She was his friend. A friend he had treated very shabbily, for the right reasons but in the wrong way. She had to grow up without his help.

Two months passed with no more letters, no appearances, and no contact of any kind. He'd gotten so worried that he had ignored his own advice and gone to Hank but found that he was blind to the whole group and they had taken the precaution of blocking her specifically. No doubt it was at the behest of Erik and the work of one Ms. Emma Frost.

Erik must have gotten wind of her contact with him. Erik never could learn to share properly.

Another month passed before he finally got word of her. The note had been dropped off at the office he shared with Hank but he didn't bother to read it until he got home.

_Do you care about me? Really?_

"Why would you even…"

_He said you wouldn't have let me go otherwise. He said Charles only cares about Charles._

"It doesn't matter what he says. Surely you don't think that I feel that way."

_Why didn't you stop me? I hate you for making me care. I hate that I'm scared that he might be right. You were never there when I needed you the most but that hasn't stopped me from caring about you._

"You wouldn't talk to me," he shouted. "I threatened to read your mind just so you'd open up."

_I bet you talk to Moira, I bet you more than talk._ _I know what I want and it's not what we had. I want more than just following behind you and I don't think you're capable of giving me more than that. _

"Moira doesn't even remember who I am." He sighed and he noticed that there was no name or initial to close the note, she'd left it blank, "and apparently neither do you."

The next six months were passed in the lab trying to perfect the machine that Hank had built. He was sure that with the rewired frequency, they would eventually get past Frost's barriers and find Raven.

He needed to find her and apologize. He had to clear up whatever lies Erik was feeding her. He refused to let her make a decision based on hearsay and though Charles had come to love Erik as a brother, Raven was more important to him and he was not going to let Erik poison her if he could help it and Charles was nothing if not stubborn.

That morning he reached for his suit and was surprised to find a tray with a lone teacup resting on it. It been a long time since he'd gotten a note from Raven and Charles believed in being cautious. He wouldn't put it above Erik to play a trick on him just to prove a point.

He lifted the cup carefully but there was nothing on the saucer so he looked into the cup itself and found a paper wedged in.

_I hope you are well._

"'I hope you are well.' Are you kidding me? Almost eight months with no sign or word from you telling me that you're ok and you have the gall to ask me if I'm well." He shouted at the innocent paper.

_I once told you that I thought that it be you and me against the world…_

"So help me, Raven. I'm gonna find you and bring you home myself and I'm not letting you go until we have a nice long talk."

_I was wrong. Erik and I are against the world. You and I…_

Charles scanned the page fruitlessly but there was nothing else. He turned it over hoping to find the rest of her thoughts but the back was just as empty.

"For heaven's sake, me and you what? Why the hell would you write something without finishing it."

"Because I needed to tell you in person," she said from the doorway.

He tried to move the tray aside but in his haste all he succeeded in doing was overturning it as he scrambled for his chair.

She pushed it to him in an attempt to stay out of his reach but he managed to grab her hand and yank her to him. "Finish the damm sentence or God help me I will pin you to this chair and force it out of you."

"Would you really do that to me?"

"What choice have you given me?" He snapped.

"You want to know what I think that badly?" she asked blinking back tears.

The mere sight of her shinny eyes disarmed him and evaporated his anger. "Yes but I wouldn't do that to you. No matter how angry I am with you, I could never violate you that way. Finish your letter, please."

"You and I…can change it. Or at least try to.

"What are you telling me?"

She sat in his chair and let him hold her hands. "I told you I was unsure that I made the right decision in going with Erik and leaving you." She looked down and he realized that she was embarrassed. "I didn't. I belong here."

He smiled that charming grin that he'd saved for only the most special of women.

She'd been the recipient of it only once, when he had offered her food after catching her in his kitchen, and she'd seen him bestow it on Moira at the bar. Raven now felt a thrill at seeing it again since now it carried a different connotation than when she had first seen it as a child.

"I think I knew that."

"Did you?" she asked. "Then why didn't you come looking for me?"

"Because you needed to discover what was best for you on your own and come back if you wished but I would have found you if you'd taken any longer."

"You sure about that?"

"Did you know that Erik hid you from me?"

"Did he? I wonder why?" she asked teasing him.

"Can't imagine," he replied.

She leaned forward, "so now what?"

"I could use company." He grinned patting the bed.

The hours lengthened into days as they went back over her many letters. The days turned into weeks as he told her about the work he had contributed to Hank's machine, that they had named Cerebro, and how if she hadn't returned he would have found her with it.

The weeks turned into months as they begin to understand that their relationship could have no secrets. And she told him all the things that had happened to her that she'd not been able to put into words. He too opened up as she did and he told her the sad truth about Moira and the struggle of trying to better their world while being tied to a chair.

The months soon approached the anniversary of her return to him and on the very day she wrote him a new note, a note that showcased how far they had come, and left it for him to read.

_Charles?_

"Yes, Raven." He responded.

_I'm glad I went with Erik._

"Why is that?"

_He made me the woman that I am today._

"Did he? How did he do that?" Charles snapped.

_I didn't mean it like that. He made me see myself and appreciate what I could be._

"I can respect that."

_Were you ever jealous?_

"I will not dignify that with a response."

_You were. That is so cute._

"Shut up."

_You have nothing to be jealous about you know, you were my first-_ here the paper was yanked out of her hand before she could finish writing her sentence.

"Don't put that on paper." He said blushing spectacularly.

Raven took the note back from him and wrote one last sentence. "Read it out loud."

He glanced at her but did as he was told. "I love you, Charles."

"I know that." He said with a smirk.

She made a noise of outrage and yanked the pillow out from under his head and clambered onto him. "You. Arrogant. Pompous. Jerk," she shrieked hitting him with every word.

"I love you too, Raven." He yelled sliding his hands onto her waist, halting her attack instantly.

"That's not fair," she pouted but she didn't really fight him as he lifted himself onto his elbows and kissed her soundly.

She gripped his shoulders and ground against him. "Rave stop."

"Why," she whined.

"Because." He said between his teeth, "Hank just got here and he is coming up the stairs as we speak."

She smiled, jumped off him and ran into the adjacent bathroom.

"Charles. I hope I didn't wake you." Hank said approaching the doorway.

Charles, who was trying to make himself look decent and had just propped himself up on his pillow, made the mistake of looking into shared bathroom, where Raven was changing clothes in the manner of a strip tease, which left him speechless to Hank's greeting.

"Are you ok?" Hanks asked noticing the glazed look on the Professor's face.

"Um…what? Oh yeah," he answered reluctantly turning in Hank's direction.

"Cerebro, you said you had some plans for me to look at?" Hank asked.

"Yes, I do."

"Hey guys." Raven greeted coming in an indecently tight black t-shirt and practically spray painted jeans. She crawled into Charles' bed and sat in the spot she's been occupying earlier.

Charles glared at her then at Hank as he read a few of his thoughts.

"Raven, I thought you had gone with. Um..." Hank paused looking between the two mutants.

"Erik? I did but you know me, couldn't leave Charlie." She said snuggling into his side making Charles blush a second time and Hank very uncomfortable.

"Ok, well that's good." He cleared his throat, "So why don't you give me the plans and I'll talk to you guys later this week."

"Sure. Raven can you get them from my study."

She got up and disappeared down the hall. "So you guys…"

"Yes, is it obvious?"

Hank pointed at her intimate clothing looped along the top of his chair. Charles coughed and when she returned with the papers, he motioned to them.

Hank bade them a quick goodbye and made himself scarce before she could figure out what the hell Charles was desperately motioning to. "What was that about?"

"Apparently we were a bit obvious." Charles muttered lifting her bra off his chair.

"That's why Hank left so quickly. Oh well," she shrugged.

"You're officially off the market."

"You are such a dork," she said climbing back onto him, happy to have the morning to continue where they had left off.

"So I've been told." He said tugging her shirt off.

Months passed and he still slept on the right side of the bed because she occupied the left. He drank his tea before bed and he refused to let her drink anything or she'd be up all night driving him nuts.

He still laid out the next day's clothing on his wheelchair and every morning consisted of him yelling at her for letting her clothes wrinkle his but a quick kiss usually shut him up.

Years later when other X-men joined them only one thing changed, her room became a spare and his room became theirs and the students quickly learned not to disturb the Professors if they heard giggling early in the morning.


End file.
